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Ukrainian officials on Friday countered claims made by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he will not order a ground offensive on the Mariupol steel plant where thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers remain holed up.
Kyiv said it had received intelligence that Russia is planning to deploy soldiers from its elite military units along with personnel from its Federal Security Service – a successor intelligence agency to Russia’s infamous KGB – to continue its assault on the Azovstal steel plant.
Smoke rises above Azovstal steelworks, in Mariupol, Ukraine, in this still image obtained from a recent drone video posted on social media. (MARIUPOL CITY COUNCIL/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.)
UKRAINE ACCUSES RUSSIA OF LEAVING UP TO 9,000 KILLED IN MARIUPOL IN MASS GRAVES
"It’s true that they might abandon the idea of a large-scale assault on Azovstal. But according to our data, they plan to deploy Russian Guards and other parts of the military apparatus, including the Federal Security Service, to continue their assault on the plant and destroy our resistance," Representative of Ukraine’s Central Intelligence Directorate, Vadym Skibitskyi, said according to a translation by a local news outlet.
His comments come one day after Putin said he didn’t believe an attack on the steel plant was "necessary" and instead directed a blockade be put on the site to encourage Ukrainian forces to surrender.
"One does not have to climb into these catacombs and crawl there underground around these industrial objects," he said. "Block this industrial zone in such a way that even a fly could not fly through."
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting on the current situation in Russia's iron and steel industry via videoconference in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, April 20. (AP/Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo)
UKRAINE SAYS RUSSIA WON'T ALLOW EVACUATIONS FROM MARIUPOL STEEL PLANT, TRY TO FORCE SURRENDER
The Metallurgical steel plant, with its deep underground tunnels, has become a beacon for resistance in Mariupol and is believed to be holding 1,000 civilians and Ukrainian soldiers.
Moscow claimed victory over the strategically important port city, but the Pentagon continues to assess that Mariupol is still contested.
Additionally, Putin suggested that those who voluntarily surrender will be "guarantee[d] life and dignified treatment."
Despite Putin’s Thursday claims, Russian forces have continued to pummel the site with a bombing campaign.
Serhii, father of teenager Iliya, cries on his son's lifeless body lying on a stretcher at a maternity hospital converted into a medical ward in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 2, 2022. A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is calling on the Biden administration to establish field hospitals near Ukraine's border and ramp up medical support for what's expected to be a months-long war of attrition waged by Russia (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
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"Every day they drop several bombs on Azovstal, despite false promises not to touch the defenders," Petro Andryushchenko, adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, told the Associated Press Friday.
"Fighting, shelling, bombing do not stop," he added.
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